GOSNOLD BARTHOLOMEW,
navigator; born in England; date unknown; became a stanch friend of
Sir Walter Raleigh. Because of Raleigh's failure, he did not lose
faith. The long routes of the vessels by way of the West Indies
seemed to him unnecessary, and he advocated the feasibility of a
more direct course across the Atlantic. He was offered the command
of an expedition by the Earl of Southampton, to make a small
settlement in the more northerly part of America ; and on April 26,
1602, Gosnold sailed from Falmouth, England, in a small vessel, with
twenty colonists and eight mariners (See the
PLYMOUTH COMPANY). He took the
proposed shorter route, and touched the continent near Nahant,
Mass., it is supposed, eighteen days after his departure from
England. Finding no good harbor there, he sailed southward,
discovered and named Cape Cod, and landed there. This was the first
time the shorter (present) route from England to
New York and Boston
had been traversed; and it was the first time an Englishman set foot
on New England soil. Gosnold passed around the cape, and entered
Buzzard's Bay, where he found an attractive group of Islands, and he
named the westernmost Elizabeth, in honor of his Queen. The whole
group bear that name. He and his followers landed on Elizabeth
Island, and were charmed with the luxuriance of vegetation, the
abundance of small fruits, and the general aspect of nature.

Gosnold determined to plant his colony there, and on a small
rocky island, in the bosom of a great pond, he built a fort; and,
had the courage of the colonists held out, Gosnold would have had
the immortal honor of making the first permanent English settlement
in America. Afraid of the Indians, fearing starvation, wondering
what the winter would be, and disagreeing about the division of
profits, they were seized with a depressing home-sickness. So,
loading the vessel with sassafras-root (then esteemed in Europe for
its medicinal qualities), furs gathered from the natives, and other
products, they abandoned the little paradise of beauty, and in less
than four months after their departure from England they had
returned ; and, speaking in glowing terms of the land they had
discovered, Raleigh advised the planting of settlements in that
region, and British merchants after-wards undertook it. Elizabeth
Island now bears its original name of Cottyunk. Gosnold soon
afterwards organized a company for colonization in
Virginia. A
charter was granted him and his associates by James I., dated April
10, 1606, the first under which the English were settled in America.
He sailed Dec. 19, 1606, with three small vessels and 105
adventurers, of whom only twelve were laborers ; and, passing
between Capes Henry and Charles, went up the James River in April,
1607, and landed where they built
Jamestown afterwards. The place
was an unhealthful one, and Gosnold remonstrated against founding
the settlement there, but in vain. Sickness and other causes
destroyed nearly half the number before autumn. Among the victims
was Gosnold, who died Aug. 22, 1607.

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